Though Cicely’s parentage is unknown and she arrived in the colonies in obscurity, Cicely rose to become one of the richest, most respected women in the New World and married into a noble lineage that can trace its heritage back beyond the royal Plantagenets and Charlemagne. She was a neighbor of John Rolfe and Pocahontas (it’s been speculated she might have been a playmate and was most likely in attendance at their wedding). With her grit and determination, she survived the starving times, disease, and more greedy suitors than Helen of Troy and Penelope, the Queen of Ithaca combined. No doubt it’s why she’s credited with having introduced the art of flirting into America.

Cicely maneuvered her way through uncharted territory and built a legacy and dynasty that defied odds. Her sons and daughters went on to become the progenitors of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. And because so many presidents, literary giants, women’s rights pioneers, and founding fathers and signers of the Declaration of Independence can trace their roots to this one woman, many historians have dubbed her the Mother of America. And to think, this audacious, influential pioneer arrived alone to America as a scared, ten year-old orphan on board a small ship, a full decade before the Mayflower made landfall, and during one of the deadliest times in American history.